VU Brief - Dec. 17, 2010

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In the News:

Year in review 2010: A year of achievements, discoveries
The following is a roundup of the news that made headlines at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2010.

Program in Drug Discovery
A $10 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health in March established Vanderbilt's Program in Drug Discovery as a National Cooperative Drug Discovery and Development Group. The five-year grant supports efforts to find novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of schizophrenia.

H1N1 findings
In two papers published in March, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and their colleagues explained why older people seem to be protected against the H1N1 “swine flu” virus.

VANTAGE point
In April, Vanderbilt University Medical Center received an $8.6 million federal stimulus grant to create a new collaborative, shared resource that officials said will accelerate discoveries in genome science and personalized medicine. The collaboration, called VANTAGE, for Vanderbilt Technologies for Advanced Genomics, will co-locate and expand four existing core facilities and BioVU, the Medical Center's DNA databank.

Women’s Health Center’s new home
The Franklin Road Women's Health Center debuted its new location in Berry Hill in April. The center is part of a Federally Qualified Health Center cluster owned and operated by University Community Health Services with 19 faculty clinicians provided through Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.  

Powerful magnet
The Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science received a $3.45 million federal stimulus grant in June to purchase one of the world's strongest magnetic resonance imaging scanners. The 15 Tesla scanner will be used in studies of genetically engineered mice and other small animal models to further understanding of cancer, diabetes and brain disorders in humans.

Personalized cancer treatment
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center launched its new Personalized Cancer Medicine Initiative in July, becoming the first cancer center in the Southeast and one of the first in the nation to offer cancer patients routine “genotyping” of their tumors at the DNA level.

Pharmacogenomics
In September, VUMC received three major federal grants, totaling $18.2 million over five years, to support studies of pharmacogenomics -- how genetic variation affects individual responses to medication. The grants are part of a $161 million package awarded this month by the National Institutes of Health to support 14 scientific research projects and seven network resources in the Pharmacogenomics Research Network.

Award extends research
In September, Susan Wente, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for Research, received a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health to pursue her studies of “nuclear pore complexes,” which transport molecules between the cell's nucleus and cytoplasm.  

Cancer Center Support Grant
VICC was awarded a five-year renewal of its Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in October. Under the NCI's Cancer Center Support Grant Program, VICC will receive more than $6.2 million per year for the next five years. MORE

Vanderbilt law professor gives input to first report from White House commission on bioethics
The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues released its first report Thursday focusing on the emerging field of synthetic biology. Vanderbilt associate professor of law and philosophy Nita Farahany is on the bioethics commission. "This report comes after a comprehensive review and three open meetings of the commission, during which we heard from experts on the science, applications, risks and benefits of the emerging field of synthetic biology,” said Farahany. “We have issued recommendations to President Obama that reflect the consensus views of the commission. The recommendations offer a measured approach that embraces scientific progress, but seeks to safeguard against potential risks of synthetic biology on an ongoing basis." MORE

New procedure offers surgical option for form of hypertension
A copy repairman who couldn't do his job anymore and was forced to take medical leave has returned to work. A woman who couldn't walk from her car to her desk job has enough energy to redecorate her house. A 42-year-old mother who was too sick to care for her children and was discharged to hospice is now back home with them and busy as ever. They each came to Vanderbilt Heart & Vascular Institute (VHVI) with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension and limited options. Until very recently they had two choices: travel to the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) for surgery or take standard medication and hope for the best. VHVI now offers what UCSD offers: a surgical approach to treating this often fatal form of hypertension. The procedure is called pulmonary endarterectomy and has been performed on 10 patients to date at VHVI. MORE

Tackling the erosion of a special river island
Locke Island is a small island in a bend of the Columbia River in eastern Washington that plays a special role in the culture of the local Indian tribes. Since the 1970s, however, it has been eroding away at a rate that has alarmed tribal leaders. The island is part of the Hanford Reservation, which is managed by the Department of Energy (DOE). So the DOE has turned to a team of researchers headed by David Furbish, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt, to study the river dynamics in the area to identify the cause of the increase in erosion and provide the scientific basis for evaluating the effectiveness of possible remedial measures. MORE

Engineering School collaborates with Metro Water on pilot wind-solar based power generating facility
The mechanical engineering department in the School of Engineering is setting up a small scale, wind-solar research and teaching power generating facility at Love Circle in Hillsboro Village. The pilot project is being done in collaboration with Nashville Metro Water Supply. The facility should produce about 30 kWk each day, the average amount of power consumed by a U.S. household daily. MORE

Blood-sucking superbug prefers taste of humans
“Staph” bacteria feed on blood. They need the iron that's hidden away inside red blood cells to grow and cause infections, and it turns out that these microbial vampires prefer the taste of human blood, Vanderbilt University scientists have discovered. The findings help explain why staph preferentially infects people and suggest that genetic variations in hemoglobin may make some individuals more susceptible to staph infections. The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health. MORE

Study examines melanoma drug resistance
Patients with metastatic melanoma being treated with the new investigational cancer drug PLX4032 are showing strong responses, with an 80 percent anti-tumor response rate among patients whose tumors are positive for the B-RAF (V600E) gene mutation. However, in all too many cases, patients are developing resistance to the drug and their cancer is beginning to grow again. Jeffrey Sosman, M.D., professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and researchers from two other academic medical centers have now identified some of the molecular pathways that allow the tumors to develop drug resistance. MORE

Signs point toward lighter flu season
A Vanderbilt researcher's work to examine the impact of H1N1 influenza on children in the Southern hemisphere is shedding light on the sort of flu season we might expect this year in North America. While working in his native country of Argentina, Fernando Polack, M.D., the Cesar Milstein Professor of Pediatrics, described the impact of H1N1 influenza on children during the H1N1 pandemic in a New England Journal of Medicine study in 2009. This month, in a correspondence in the NEJM, Polack expands on that work and has good news for those of us just entering flu season. In the correspondence, Polack describes the 2010 flu season for pediatric patients in Argentina as very mild, especially when compared with the same population during the 2009 flu season. Polack suggests the world-wide vaccination efforts in the wake of H1N1 influenza may have helped. MORE

Stead elected to IOM leadership council
Bill Stead, M.D., associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs and Chief Strategy and Information Officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been elected to a full term on the Council of the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Stead, who is internationally known for his contributions to biomedical informatics, was previously appointed to the council in 2009 to fill the unexpired term of Margaret Hamburg, M.D., who resigned when she became commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Stead will serve from 2011-2013 and is eligible for a second term. MORE

James Franklin: Vanderbilt Football Head Coach
James Franklin, one of the nation’s top offensive coordinators and recruiters, is a head coach-in-waiting no longer. Franklin, assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at the University of Maryland, will be introduced Friday as the 27th head coach in Commodore football history by Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos and Vice Chancellor for University Affairs and Athletics David Williams II. “The hiring of Coach Franklin represents a new day for Vanderbilt football,” Zeppos said. “He has my full support and commitment that we will help him create an environment where the successes on the field equal the university’s extraordinary successes off the field.” A native of Langhorne, Pa., the 38-year-old Franklin becomes the first minority head coach to lead the Vanderbilt football program. MORE